Affective tone of mothers' statements to restrict their children's eating_2016.pdf

Maternal restrictive feeding behaviors have been associated with child weight status. The affective toneof mothers' statements intended to restrict their children's eating has not been examined. The objectivesof this study were to describe the affective tone of mothers' restrictive feeding behaviors (positive ornegative), and to test the association of child and mother characteristics with rates of Restriction withPositive Affect, Restriction with Negative Affect and Total Restriction. A total of 237 low-income childmotherdyads (mean child age 5.9 years) participated in a videotaped standardized laboratory eatingprotocol, during which mothers and children were both presented with large servings of cupcakes. Acoding scheme was developed to count each restrictive statement with a positive affective tone and eachrestrictive statement with a negative affective tone. To establish reliability, 20% of videos were doublecoded.Demographics and anthropometrics were obtained. Poisson regression models were used totest the association between characteristics of the child and mother with counts of Restriction withPositive Affect, Restriction with Negative Affect, and Total Restriction. Higher rates of Restriction withPositive Affect and Total Restriction were predicted by child obese weight status, and mother non-Hispanic white race/ethnicity. Higher rates of Restriction with Negative Affect were predicted by olderchild age, child obese weight status, mother non-Hispanic white race/ethnicity, and lower mother educationlevel. In conclusion, in this study mothers of obese (vs. non-obese) children had higher rates ofrestriction in general, but particularly higher rates of Restriction with Negative Affect. Rather than beingtold not to restrict, mothers may need guidance on how to sensitively restrict their child's intake. Futurestudies should consider the contributions of maternal affect to children's responses to maternalrestriction.